Soundcards - Are they really worth it?

H

helmie

New Member
Hi,
Is there any big advantages to using a soundcard to using the onboard audio?

One thing I do notice is at high volumes, you can a weird noise from the speakers, would this be removed with a sound card?

If i did get one, what would you reccomend?

Budget - £40.
 
Card

The Audio cards are better because it doesn't make your computer work as much as on board. Also with Sound cards your are able to take advantage of full surround sound and special effects on games and so forth.

I use a Sound Blaster Live and it works find but i would recommend a newer card from Creative.

Creative is the most famious Sound card producer. (They have diffrent versions)
 
I had a sound blaster Live in my old system(it has no onboard audio) and it did sound better than my current soundcard... I could also bump Media Player Classic up to 24bit which really helped out...

As for performace, they usally take less, yes, than onboard sound cards, but typically, it's not that bad. If you read reviews, I'm think they rate it around a 5% decrease in performace for most onboard audio(with/without sound)
 
You wont see a visual improvement like you would with a video card, cpu, ram, ect. But it does sound much better, especially if you have headphones or nice speakers. The new X-Fi has CMSS-3D and 24Bit crystalizer, which makes headphones sound great in music, games, and movies.
 
I didn't say there'd be a visual improvement if that's what you were suggesting :P Well, there may be a slight FPS increase, but yeah, nothing major.
 
The_Other_One said:
I didn't say there'd be a visual improvement if that's what you were suggesting :P Well, there may be a slight FPS increase, but yeah, nothing major.
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no no, i wasnt talking to you, in fact i didnt even read your post :P.
 
i'd go with the x-fi hands down, you can get it for about 100$ and it has its own cpu which takes load off the main cpu freeing up more power for gaming and the like
 
im sure that having a good sound card helps the gaming experience but personally i don't want to fork out all that money just to hear something really good
 
LITHIUM said:
im sure that having a good sound card helps the gaming experience but personally i don't want to fork out all that money just to hear something really good
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It's really more then just hearing nice sound, although that is a big part. If your going to fork out the money on a good gaming comp then a good sound card is a must. It's just like a good home theatre system...sound is an integral component.
 
Phr3sH said:
It's really more then just hearing nice sound, although that is a big part. If your going to fork out the money on a good gaming comp then a good sound card is a must. It's just like a good home theatre system...sound is an integral component.
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Totally agree, having a sound is a must with a gaming machine. It's like the difference between you're local small town movie theater and a huge city's theater. Trust me I went to a small 2 screen theater and then a 25 screen in a larger city, and it was like going from beating on a trash can to an orchestra :D
 
i saw an ad on Xfire (game messenger) and it says "Running BF2 at 10 fps?" and it was recomending to get a sound card??? is that just a gimmick???
 
Or instead of spending 100 dollars on a sound card use the 100 dollars on a graphics card or ram. More bang for your buck. I'm not saying dont buy a sound card. Just dont go crazy. You dont have to get a top of the line sound card.
EDIT: Just read your post
MrBucket said:
i saw an ad on Xfire (game messenger) and it says "Running BF2 at 10 fps?" and it was recomending to get a sound card??? is that just a gimmick???
Click to expand...
A sound card wont boost the performance noticibly. If you want more fps dont get a soundcard, if you want sound quality, get a sound card. Simple as that.
 
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go for a fairly nice sound card, it will help your gaming experience. just make sure to get some nice headphones/speakers to go with it. for instance, the Logitech X-530 speaker system.
 
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